Noboru’s trip to Okayama, Pizza Hut and a 3 day weekend (Coming of Age Day)

Thursday, January 9th, 2014, at noon, I dropped Noboru off at the station and he made his way to Tokyo Haneda airport. Flew via ANA to Okayama. The plan was for Noboru to meet the seller at 8pm, he would be picking up Noboru at the station there. However, as luck would have it, the 1 time Tokyo gets hit with snow would be that very day! Hahaha. So, Noboru's flight was delayed because of the snow by 1 hour. No worries though he made it safe and sound and that is the most important thing afterall. : ) Met with the seller and Noboru did email him explaining about the snow delay. Anyway after a lot of paper work, and Noboru paying the other half of the car when he actually saw it and signed the paperwork, they shook hands and Noboru dropped him home and he left. That same night, Thursday night, Noboru took a ferry from Okayama to the city of Takamatsu in Shikoku. From Shikoku he drove to Tokushima and from there Noboru boarded the longer distance ferry 12 or 14 hours type ferry that would be taking him to Tokyo, Friday at 10am. Taking the ferry would be 2,000 yen more expensive than driving, considering driving in Japan, it is all toll roads on the highways. Also, he would be driving alone and would be exhausted. I worry about him and don't want him killed driving on little sleep and neither does he, so it was better for him to pay an extra 2,000 yen ($20 US) and not have to worry about driving or exhaustion and sort of just take it easy and enjoy the journey. And he did. This pic is of the ferry that would take Noboru from Tokushima to Tokyo. He and the new to us, mini mini van. Micro mini van? @.@ Both went on the ship and Noboru got to enjoy his trip. : )

They have private rooms for families. But you know he was alone and so he picked just a regular room with bunk beds (not a family private room). Noboru said the boat was pretty much empty and there was no one else in his sleeping area, not even remotely. :  ) 

Again not a whole lot of people on board which was fine by Noboru because he was the only one in the sento/bath. And wow look at that ocean view, how truly pretty! What a nice clean bath too. I line messaged him after he sent me this pic and I said..."how pretty....sparkling clean bath and wow what a killer ocean view, enjoy, have fun and I love you!" He replied back and said "thanks." He messaged me an hour later saying he felt fantastic and so relaxed. : )

After his bath and the message saying how relaxed he was, he sent me this picture saying, "gorgeous sunset wish you were here with me" I was like awe. : ) I replied to him "beautiful...enjoy enjoy, wish I was there too but, see you tomorrow, all is fine here, no worries." he sent me one more pic of what he was eating on the boat and called right before he went to bed, talked to Branden and talked to Noah and said he was proud of the both of them. Backing up a bit, the day before, Thursday evening, Branden read Noah's renrakucho (stamped it and made sure Noah's homework was all finished, phoned dad/Noboru and said he made sure Noah was done. Branden did his own homework and stamped his own renrakucho (communication notebook between parents and teacher). And Noah did tell me directly what his homework assignment was and showed me his work but Branden just doubly made sure, good older brother that he is : ) Friday morning the both of them got up and both dumped the trash, flattened out all the cardboard. I did go around the house to various little trash cans and dumping them into the big trash can, checking the fridge too making sure nothing was old or needing to be thrown out. But yeah the boys were amazing while he was away and Noboru called them Thursday evening and Friday evening while he was away to check in on them besides me. And the boys looked forward to his call. : ) 

Thursday after dropping Noboru off, I went and drove to Narita city and picked up some Pizza Hut. Right now, the Pizza Hut in Narita is having a special, 50% off if you pick up the pizza. I figured with Noboru being gone, I'd like to make our 2 nights here as fun as I could, for both Branden and Noah. So, Pizza Hut was a nice surprise. : ) Thursday night was the night Noboru was transitioning himself and making his way to Tokushima. Friday is when he was in the boat and slept in the bunk bed. : ) 

Two large pepperoni and mushroom pan pizzas and 1 large baked fries. They both get out of school on Thursdays at 3pm. Here in our town it was so bitterly cold, though we got no snow at all. Cold enough we should have, but nope no snow. I heard Tokyo got it, hence the delayed flight. : ) But nope not here. Thursday the boys ate pizza, did homework, went to swim school, came home and had more pizza. Took showers and put on their pjs, Noboru called them and asked how they were. They were happy, they told daddy (Noboru) how mommy bought pizza and they went swimming. Noboru reminded Branden that the next day was trash day and that it's usually his job but since he's not here, he was counting on them. The kids went to sleep and Noboru and I talked for a minute or two. All was quiet and well here. 

Friday, after sending the boys to school, I did a load of laundry, vacuumed the upstairs and downstairs, cleaned the house, pulled the laundry out of the dryer and folded it. At noon, I set the rice cooker. Cut the chicken, for the chicken teriyaki bowls. Wrapped it and put it in the fridge. Picked up the kids Friday from school. They brought me all their notes. Branden told me about his upcoming ensoku/field trip to Tokyo and he will be needing a lunch for that. But that's in a few weeks. But at least I have the heads up. The boys finished their homework. I meanwhile made dinner. I usually will make this when Noboru isn't here, but Noboru does like this too, and I make his with thigh meat. It's a very Americanized chicken teriyaki bowl. Something you might get at a food court in the mall in the states. And what I notice about eating in a food court in the US, is families share food. Say someone is eating Subway and someone KFC or someone Burger King, they will say, "hey can I have a few fries", "oh yeah sure, no problem" and so, that's how this meal came about. Someone would surely be sharing a few fries with someone else. So it's a total food court type teriyaki bowl, even with a few french fries. Just 3, because that's how many people would share, I'd say, if I were to take a guess. : ) Just white/chicken breast meat (skinless), mushrooms, some steamed broccoli and 3 fries, and a light sprinkling of seasoning on the chicken. we had that for supper last night. It's very filling. The boys went upstairs and took their goggles into the tub, they were going to enjoy a nice hot bath/soak after a shower first. I meanwhile just read through some emails and by the time they came down, both Branden and Noah were melting from the tub, they had on their jammies on and hung out on the couch for the rest of the night. I went upstairs and took a quick shower and a soak in the tub and then came downstairs in my Frosty fleece-y night T and a pony tail. We popped popcorn and watched Pearl Harbor on TV last night. Noah konked out before the end, but Branden and I finished it.

This weekend here in Japan will be a 3 day weekend. It's a holiday here (Coming of Age Day) and schools are closed. No school for Branden and Noah this coming Monday. 3 day weekends are so nice. :) Anyway that's it for now, I have a bits and pieces/catch up type post to do, but I am just going to chill out here at home and enjoy the weekend. Noboru got here this morning and the only thing we have planned to do today is to hit that cheap 20% off time at the cheap meat store. lol. : )
PS, Our little red R2 came from Okayama, the mini mini van, we just bought just now, also came from Okayama and the Mazda MPV came from Osaka, lol. Hahaha. Just something that made us laugh when we realized that, this morning. : )

Changing both of the family cars for 2014, phase 1

This is what the Nissan leaf looks like, that we took a test drive in, in December.

For years, our cars/vehicles have been, 1 white Mazda MPV (regular minivan) and 1 little red Subaru R2. Both bought and paid for in cash at the time we bought them. We didn’t buy them new granted, but they were just a couple years old, when bought and really low mileage at the time, when we bought them. The MPV, perfect for taking long drives like to Osaka and Hakone and Nagano type trips and for trips to the airport for carrying mass amounts of luggage. The little red car has been perfect for my everyday car, we bought the little red car right before Noah started yochien because we knew that I’d be driving back and forth, from yochien everyday with Noah, from our town to the small city nearest us, so for us, the little red car has already served it’s purpose already, meaning Noah is in elementary school in our town and so I drive way way less. So anyway....

Ever since the March 11th earthquake. And one day I’ll type out and write an update about that. But for now, what I will say is, after the horrific earthquake, besides there being a food shortage, milk, whathaveyou.  Gas for our vehicles was superly hard to find, and when you could track a station that was selling gas and not all sold out or temporarily closed, the lines were hours long! @.@ Yes, that is something we have not forgotten. I think the earthquake in a way, was a factor in our choosing to get our solar panels for our house, I have mentioned that already that it was a factor. And the gas shortage for vehicles has also, never been far from our minds either.

For the past year, we have been thinking about getting a new water boiler, for our home and we will be getting a more eco friendly one this year. Also, we have been deciding to change our cars for the past year as well. For starters, we have been deciding to get either a hybrid or a 100% all electric car. That has been the biggest decision. The choice for our particular family was between the Toyota Fielder (hybrid sort of like a station wagon meaning roomier but a modern looking one) or the Nissan Leaf (100% electric) The thing with a hybrid though.... is that it still needs gas. Granted much much less gas, but yes... gas all in the same. However, with the all electric car...if god forbid, another huge earthquake ever goes down.  And there is talk about that Nankai trough going to be even bigger then the Tohoku quake, not sure if any of you keep up with fault lines etc, but yes there is talk about that one being a definite possibility. So if a huge earthquake does ever happen, gas shortage wouldn’t be a problem for us, and our car could get power from our house, we have already checked. So, though we are not 100% certain and it’s not carved in stone as of yet, we are 98% sure it will indeed be an all electric car. We have already taken a test drive, the power when you step on the.... well technically it’s not a gas pedal anymore...so I guess you could say the "go peddle", lol. It is hella powerful. It has a lot of get up and go. And so the 100% electric would be my mama cruising car. Doing all my grocery store shopping to and from the, cheap meat store, the bakery, JA to get farm fresh eggs and veggies, Costco run, etc. There are also charge up stations near here, like at the mall nearest us for example, so, I could shop or go to a movie with friends and charge my car at the same time.

White license plate (standard car), yellow license plate (light weight car/kei car). In America getting your yearly registration or "license plate renewal" even if you drove a rather nice car, it was still only a couple hundred dollars to get your yearly registration for your car. Here in Japan, it’s by weight and size of engine, same as America but the cost difference is huge between how much it would cost in America for the MPV for example as to what it costs to register it here, same type of vehicle. Yellow license plate cars are cheaper to drive, my red car is around 7,000 yen for my yearly car tax. Where as our bigger MPV, had a V-6 engine and so it cost our family $1800 US every 2 years because of car inspection, weight tax and car tax. Yep, isn’t that an insane amount of money to own a white license plate car??? @.@ My family in the US couldn’t believe it, when we said $1800 to renew our car stuff. Our MPV needed renewing in April 2014, so another $1800 US would be approaching in a few months. And so that sort of gave us the push we needed to get the ball rolling. Noboru and I both sat at the table in November, should we keep the MPV or sell it? If April gets here and we pay the $1800 insane price, then we should just keep it for another 2 years.  So we knew it either had to happen before April, or stick with the MPV for another 2 years. So now or never so to speak. In December, we sold it. So the MPV is gone. Again, when I said December was slightly busy, yeah I wasn’t kidding, selling the family minivan was also on the list of stuff going on. : )

Also, we would love to have 2 yellow license plate cars. Why? Because of the cost to have them! We would never want 2 white license plate cars, let’s put it that way. Can you imagine two $1800 bills every 2 years? Yikes! @.@ : ) However...1 yellow plate and 1 white plate is totally doable. And more than likely what we will have.

The Nissan Leaf and Toyota Fielder would be a white license plate car. So since that will be a white plate car, we wanted our 2nd car to be a yellow plate car, so we decided to get a mini minivan, 4WD and a turbo, same thing as what we used to drive before we had the Mazda MPV. So as of right now, the plan is to have a mini minivan (super tiny) but 4WD which means we could still cruise it to Hakone in winter and the turbo means we wouldn't’ feel like we were cruising a vehicle with a lawn mower engine. So it would have some get up and go. We have since bought the mini mini van also, but have yet to pick it up. It is near Osaka and Noboru will be leaving this week with his 3 days off in a row (since he gave up that 1 day for his coworker during New Years) and that gives Noboru time to go and get the car and bring it back to Chiba. It will be much tinier than our MPV, however it will cost annually only about $70 US a year for car taxes and the other inspection on top of that... the total would be only about $300 every 2 years, including weight tax, inspection fee and liability insurance for 2 years so pretty cheap, same costs as our red car) And we still get to drive everywhere in it because it’s a 4WD and a turbo too. And we have already paid cash for it, since we hate the idea of making payments on stuff, when we can pay cash for it instead. It may not be brand new, but we own it and no payments. : )

So, it will appear that we have 2 yellow plate cars for the time being, my red car and the "new to us" mini minivan. But...our next move is to bide our time and in May or June we will buy the electric car. We are only waiting because....we don't want to jump too fast and we know there is another 100% electric car coming out soon and we want to see how the new 100% electric car that Honda is making compares to the Leaf...the Honda Fit EV. They’re out already... but not available for regular customers/general consumer yet.

Nothing too earth shattering here, but we’re happy....and we’re super happy we won’t have an absurd $1800 renewal in April. If we’re going to spend $1800, it would be nicer to spend it on nice family vacation...or toward a water boiler, you know what I mean, something that really benefits our family in the long run.  So the next step is selling the red car in May and buying ourselves a barely 1 year old Nissan Leaf. Or a brand new Toyota Fielder or Honda Fit EV. So upgrades all around... just smarter spending when it comes to our car renewals and stuff. And for what it’s worth, because the next car will be electric the white plates will be much less than the MPV was, since it was a gas vehicle. And it does vary from car to car the price, but yes white plates are more expensive than yellow plates. But factor in, we won't be paying gas for our new white license plate car, so for us it will be cheaper owning that.

Anyway just wanted to keep you all updated. but the cars are being switched and changed this year, in 2014. : )

Happy New Year 2014!!! The year of the horse

Happy New Year, to each and every one of you! : ) This is the New Year's card that our family sent out this year! The top 6 picture cluster, are 6 pictures taken from when our family was in Honolulu, Hawaii in June 2013. Branden and Noah in front of the famous statue of Duke Kahanamoku, in front of the Dole Pineapple Plantation, in Waikiki with trolley behind them (though we prefer rent our own car and drive ourselves : ), and the last 3 of the 6 cluster are of the boys showing off their crazy mad boogie boarding skills! : )  The bottom 3 are from our Denver trip, Sakura Square (I am sure Noboru's brother and sister smiled when they saw that particular picture, when they received their card from us), the hot spring in Glenwood Springs and the sign saying, Leaving Colorful Colorado. I had made these cards, the week we got back from Colorado, jet lag or not, I knew the cards had to be ordered and shipped with plenty of time to get to us, since I do order my cards from the US. : )

This is what the other side looked like, I chose a happy orange background color and looked online for the perfect New Year's horse pic to send. Before we sat down to carve our Thanksgiving turkey, these cards were already shipped and on their way to us here. Though the start of December is when we finally all sat down at the kitchen table, all 4 of us and started to write the message on our own cards. Noboru wrote his message on the orange part to his friends, Branden and Noah also wrote their own messages to their own friends on the orange part of the card, as well, and I wrote out my own personal messages to my own friends, yochien mom friends, my movie friends, my elementary school mom friends, my mom in California, my dad in Guam, and to a couple of my very best friends back in Denver. : ) 

We send out a stack of these each year. We all had hand cramps by the time we were done. But getting them done and all sent off was a nice feeling. : ) 

The boys received otoshidama from grandma Mitsuko, uncle Jun and Noboru. They didn't receive the stack of otoshidama, like last year because we didn't go to Osaka this year, but that's okay. Noboru decided to mix things up this year though! He gave Branden and Noah an envelop of 5,000 yen ($50US) and he also held up this envelop with many cut up papers sticking out. Remember that old show "Let's Make a Deal?"  Well sort of along those lines. He said, Noah, here is your envelop and inside is 5,000 yen! You can take this envelop with 5,000 yen in it right now *or* you can take a chance, in this other envelop there is a chance to win ichiman yen ($100 US), 8,000 yen, 5,000 yen, 3,000 yen, 1,000 yen or 500 yen! Or like I said you can take the sure thing of 5,000 yen! Noah being Mr, Safe and conservative took the sure thing, 5,000 yen. Noah is clearly not a gambling type person. Then as this picture shows, Noboru said the same exact thing to Branden. Except Branden took the risk and went with the strip of paper! By the way for the record, Noah and I were saying..."take the sure thing...don't risk it!!!!" But Branden pulled the paper and....wompwompwomp!!! : (

Ahem! Seriously you guys what are the odds? There were only two 500 yen strips, because we counted afterwards. OMG! Branden was so disappointed. He didn't pout about it though. I meanwhile was making first breakfast of the year, crispy bacon and scrambled eggs with some shredded colby jack cheese, we had toast. Noboru disappeared to the genkan/entryway and came back and traded envelops with Branden. Giving him his original envelop with 5,000 yen in it. He said, your lesson is, don't gamble, don't ever risk a sure thing. Branden was so happy and said...I won't! : ) 

We did hang this on the front door, it's hanging even right now. : )

I made these December 31st, and we had enjoyed these December 31st evening and January 1st. Like rocky road type brownies, with marshmallow and nuts. : ) We had a delicious and hearty pork curry December 31st, not a traditional thing to eat but hey....Noboru was at work, it was just the kids and I, so we kept it good, but we kept it simple. No worries. : ) I had set the tub after supper, after the kids showered they soaked in the tub, we had bath powders in there, by the time they both came out of the tub they looked melting hot. They had their pjs on, I did take a hot shower and soaked too, and after that we all watched TV and enjoyed our quiet New year's eve night. : ) Noah did zonk out around 8:50pm, lol. But Branden stayed up until 11pm, and he couldn't stay up anymore after that. I did wait up for Noboru to get home at 12:30pm. We talked and then he went and had a soak in the tub. Our tub is really big, length wise it's as long as an American tub, could be longer, but deep/depth wise it's as deep as a Japanese tub. There's a bench seat, it's really pretty huge actually and water goes up to your neck, it can be reheated, it's more like a hot tub actually. But it's super big our tub and it's heaven taking a bath in there in winter time. : ) And the color of our tub is like a gray granite type color there's speckles of color in our tub too, it really feels like you are at an onsen when you take a bath at our house. : ) It took us 4 month's of full time searching to find the perfect tub we were looking for, when we were building our house, we went from showroom to showroom trying out tubs. I told the homebuilder, at the time, I want a couple people to be able to be able to take a bath at the same time I was very adamant about the tub size. Because at the time, the boys were little and I bathed with both the boys, because Noah was under 1 year of age, Branden was 3. And I also knew Noboru would be bathing with the boys too. It needed to be family size, let's put it that way. Our tub is probably one of my most favorite things about the whole house. Though I do not bathe with the boys anymore at all, clearly (not for years) but they always have a nice soak together and have a blast during their bath. : ) So anyway, sorry I  lost the topic for a bit...anyway Noboru enjoyed his soak in the tub. Came downstairs and we watched TV for a bit. 

Hot chocolate brownies with pecans, rocky road brownies.

January 1st we 4 all had baked chicken parmesan and some cherry coke we bought at Costco last week. Noboru left to work at 10pm that night. 

New Year's Eve TV, for the most part, I have been watching the Twilight Zone marathon (it's even on right now, as I type), but we also enjoyed the New Year's Rockin Eve on ABC. Hosted by Ryan Seacrest and Jenny McCarthy. 

Jenny getting down to Macklemore!

There were also lots of kids movies on too. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was on the family channel, the boys watched that for a bit, but then changed it to the Karate Kid (the Jaden Smith one, I prefer the Ralph Macchio one)

Date says, January 1st. 10pm (Guam time) but 9pm Japan time, Noah was zonked out and sleeping in his bed upstairs. Branden was laying on the couch but he had his Beats by Dre headphones on and was deep into playing his Pokemon Y game. So, I changed the channel and after watching many many hours of Twilight Zone, I changed it to one of the crime channels. Watched the Homicide Hunter with Detective Joe Kenda. It doesn't show gore, but he retells his story and it's really good. I watched 2 of his shows and then turned it back to the Twilight Zone, then I went to sleep. 

Joe retelling his story, pictured here.  Today is January 2nd, and we will have yakiniku tonight. Not on the grill outside, just in the house. It's been marinating since 11am this morning. Noboru has the night shift tonight again, but he is off tomorrow. : )  The boys homework is long done however, Noah needs pictures from his baby days up until now. A couple of each. @.@ So, I did put some aside, that I especially thought Noah should take, and tomorrow I'll go and make copies of them and then we'll be done done. @.@ Also, Branden had to have made something with potatoes during Christmas/winter break...but not to worry the pic of the gratin potatoes at Christmas, plus the fact he did peel them and grate the cheese and I specifically knew he had to help with those, so, I had him watch and learn how to make the roux too (in case they ask), so I will make a copy of the picture of those as well, tomorrow. : ) Other then that, we're just staying home, not doing a whole lot, except getting some much needed rest and relaxation in. : ) Branden and Noah go back to school January 7th, so we're basically just enjoying our family time until then. Genki has come to play, 5 times during winter break and Noboru said he called each day while we were in Guam, bless his heart. He is such a good kid, who truly must miss the boys when they are away. : ) They played soccer January 1st for half the day. : )  And Branden and Noah went to Genki's house twice during winter break also, to ask if he could play too, so it's not just 1 sided, it's not 1 sided at all. : )  Anyway that's enough for now. One of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes just came on, the one where these people are really toys, except they don't know they're really toys yet. : )  I've got my bedroom sheets in the dryer, as I type and Noah's sheets will be going in the washer on commercial. : )  Branden's were washed yesterday. It's just an every week type thing. So...it's just time. : ) Anyway Happy New Year to you all, from our family, here in Chiba, Japan. : )

Christmas 2013

We had made a big batch of homemade cookie dough, baked half of the cookies before heading to Guam and baked the other half when we got back from Guam.  Christmas cookie cutters, 1 rolling pin and little fingers pictured here. : )

The 3 of us baked these while listening to Christmas music and Noboru hanging out in the kitchen with us, all of us having a pretty good time.

Well done kiddos. : )  Also, for what it's worth, I used to frost the cookies but when I did, nobody would eat them. I think they were just too sweet when frosted, for our family. Which is why we just sprinkle them this way and then everyone finishes them off. : )

Noah about to wrap the gift he picked for daddy. : )

Looking good Noah, I think daddy will be really happy with what you picked for him. : )

Noah about to wrap one more, the gift he picked for his brother Branden, so Branden had to go upstairs for about 10 minutes while Noah wrapped and put a bow and wrote the name tag on it.

After Branden's was wrapped, Branden came downstairs and wrapped one he picked for daddy and then Noah had to go upstairs, because I had pulled out the gift Branden had picked for Noah. : ) December was not insanely busy... but it was semi busy. Buying all the Christmas kai/party gifts with the other 6th grade leader mom's. We had the marathon. Decorating our house for Christmas, putting up our Christmas tree in the living room, we had Christmas presents to be wrapped. Preparing for Christmas dinner. Kids getting ready to go on winter break. Packing for Guam. Guam was a relief though, because it gave me just 3 short days to take a breather, you know what I mean. To not have to think about fuku kaicho stuff, 6th grade mom rep stuff. Just let the ol' brain destress and chill. So that might have been only 3 days... but my gosh, I came back feeling recharged. : ) I was glad I had 2 friend meet ups in December (lunch and the movie date) so that was awesome, but yeah....December definitely semi busy. : ) And I do know that once the kids grow up and leave the nest I'll be back to wishing they were little again and so...I try not to stress over the small stuff now and enjoy it more, but yeah Guam helped me big time. : ) 

Christmas morning came and we all went downstairs and unwrapped presents in the living room. It went from Christmas tree and many presents underneath to Christmas tree with nothing under it and wrapping paper all over the floor. Hahaha. That needed to be picked up and cleaned up. : )  The boys came into the kitchen and were pulling out a few presents out of their Christmas stockings (stocking stuffers) and I heated up the cinnamon rolls (for everyone) and made some coffee for Noboru and I.

It was a wonderful and quiet Christmas morning. Both Branden and Noah were so happy with everything they got this year. Noboru was pretty happy and so was I. We enjoyed our cinnamon rolls and then the boys went and played with their new toys and games and whatnot. : )

Noboru and I sat at the kitchen table and just enjoyed our coffees slowly and talked about the kids and their presents, what a nice Christmas this was.... We also talked about how absolutely cold it looked outside and how frost covered the field looked behind our house. It was a nice morning. 

Christmas dinner. Noboru unfortunately had to work from 4pm, so he missed having dinner with us. : ( But he had this all for lunch and dinner the next day as well. : )  What do we have here? Let's see. Those Red Lobster biscuits, 2 platefuls of those, 1 plate is near the Fanta soda. 2 servings of homemade from scratch gratin potatoes, these were so good. A salad with choice of ranch or vinaigrette, black olives and green beans and a honey glazed ham, this was the best ham I have ever eaten before in my life! Growing up, my family always ordered a ham (for Easter or whatever) from the Honey Baked Ham store, so I know a good ham when I taste one. : ) I used a recipe online from allrecipes.com, I liked that the baste was made from 3 ingredients, honey, brown sugar and a little melted butter, I glazed this every 20 minutes total cook time was an hour and 15 minutes. I will make this ham again. I am so happy the person on allrecipes.com shared this recipe. 

These were the biscuits we made, the boys and I. 

Salad close up. : )

And we were all wearing our comfy clothes, sweatpants and long sleeve tees. I had my hair in a pony tail and not a stitch of makeup on. I like that we are very low key with our holidays. Just good food, and the best company in the world, my boys. : ) Wished Noboru could be here, but I did Line/message him a pic. : )  And said we missed him and wished he was here with us. : ) 

We also had 2 homemade cheesecakes. We had blueberry sauce if anyone wanted it. It was just a very nice dinner. : ) By the way it's fair to note, the boys helped with the gratin potatoes, they both peeled mass amounts of potatoes for that and I peeled a ton myself. Branden grated cheese for the gratin potatoes and he also grated cheese for the biscuits. Noah helped make the salad and he opened the olives and placed them in the bowl. What I'm saying is... they helped a lot and I think that's really nice. Good kids, good kids. :  )

My serving. My salad with ranch and on the main plate we had potatoes, honey ham, green beans, black olives and a cheddar garlic biscuit.  So anyway there ya have it, our Christmas 2013 in a nut shell. : ) 

The day after Christmas the boys and I decorated some gingerbread houses in the evening. 

There were 4 mini houses total, Branden built 2, Noah built 2 and the 3 of us decorated them together the next day, we had to let the frames dry completely before we decorated them. : )

Noah working so hard at getting his house walls all nicely built and standing. 

Noah getting the roof on! Making a few adjustments still though. : )

This pic is a little blurry but you can see Noah's face, he's trying really hard looking at the house, making sure it was straight and looking good. : )

We left them like this to dry over night. : )

And all finished. : ) 

The best part about making gingerbread houses, is of course, eating them! Hahaha. : ) Here's Noah eating his and for the record he thought the roof with frosting was much too sweet, so he ate everything but the frosted roof. : ) 

Branden took a bite of the roof on his and thought it was way too sweet too, so he ate the unfrosted parts of the house. All in all, I am so glad I bought this gingerbread house decorating kit, it was a lot of fun for the boys to make and I had a blast decorating it with them. : )

I take a pic every year of the house all lit up at Christmas time. This year I forgot. : ) But you can at least see a bit of the icicle lights in this pic. I also forgot to take a pic of the tree all nicely lit up as well. : (  Sorry ya'll, I really think the Christmas party prep and the housing community rep thing (fuku kaicho stuff) plus like I said marathon stuff, end of school year stuff. Just my mind was a little preoccupied and I forgot. : ) Hopefully next year I will remember. : ) Good thing I have this pic at least though. : ) It was so pretty when it was up. And we have already taken everything down already because of the getting ready for New Year's and the cleaning that happens this time of year in Japan.  Anyway, at least this gives you a round about idea how our family here in Chiba, Japan celebrated Christmas this year. : ) Hope all of you that celebrate it, had a wonderful Christmas this year as well. : )